I remember this scene feeling like a fever trip in the manga. I felt confused about what was happening at all times. It seems a bit more obvious what is going on this time around. The fight between the kenpachis continues. Both Unohana and Zaraki are absolute freaks when it comes to the joy that fighting causes them. Unohana is trying to fix Zaraki so that he can fight to his fullest extent. And there we have it. Bankai, Minazuki. The most terrifying lady in this series showing off her terrifying bankai. A sword of blood and the ability to heal up her wounds which she gained in years of being a healer. And like that, Zaraki Kenpachi realizes his true potential. And just like that we see the end of Unohana Retsu, the previous Kenpachi.
We move back to Ichigo and Renji who have arrived at the next island. Here we have the creator of Zanpakuto. Why are there a bunch of women here? I thought these people lived in solitude. I never liked squad zero in the manga, and this isn’t changing my opinion so far. Ichigo’s opinion of their vibe kind of matches mine to be honest. But this guy can maybe make a new Zanpakuto for our main character, so he has to suck up to him. At least a little bit.
I might have tricked you a few sentences ago, I might have just forgotten this arc, I guess we’ll never know. But this guy is in fact living in solitude, those around him are Zanpakuto he created.
So Oh-Etsu Nimaiya creates the Asauchi, the Zanpakuto without a personality and then when they get used by Soul Reapers they form into more personalized swords as they spend more time with them. This is a way for characters to get weapons that suit their style. Doesn’t make a lot of sense for some characters like Soi Fon, who got a weapon that doesn’t fit her at all, and I’m sure there’s more examples but it feels like a lot of this story got thought up way later.
I want to quickly bring up God of Highschool. It’ll make sense. I’ve been reading that Webtoon recently and it’s really good. Some parts of the story could have been better for sure, but one thing I love about this series is that up until the very end it always feels like the author planned out things to happen in a certain way. This doesn’t mean he did, he could have thought they fitted in nicely later on, but as long as to the readers it feels all planned out, it becomes a watertight story. For a series of almost 600 chapters that’s very hard to do and I don’t think Kubo managed to do it.
Back to the episode real quick. Renji manages to beat the trial but Ichigo fails. He’s told to give up. That’s not going to fly with Ichigo but one interesting thing he says is that Ichigo isn’t a soul reaper. He is a substitute in a sense, but his father is also a famed Soul Reaper so he is a Soul Reaper by blood. This is another show of why I don’t like this arc. Ichigo gets treated like he’s useless by these people that haven’t proven themselves at all in the story. He’s the guy that saved Soul Society from Aizen while they were just relaxing and doing nothing. We are entering the best part of this arc soon though, so I’m excited for that. I believe the upcoming part of the anime will cover “everything but the rain” and right as I’m writing this, the title card for next week shows up to confirm my suspicion. This is very exciting.
Opal Kaharis 